I really like Splitting the Editor when I am working, and I also like working in Composition Mode (which I have set to the Dark theme/view).
When I Split the Editor and then go to Composition Mode, I just get one screen (the one that has the focus before I go to Composition Mode).
Is there any way I can get Composition Mode to display both Split Editor screens?#
Thanks for any replies.
No. (I suspect that someone from LL would say that the idea of the composition mode is to focus on a single document, while hiding everything else. Including other documents.)
But… you can open them both as a scrivening and scroll.
Or… cheat using bookmarks 
Thanks very much, Vincent_Vincent 
Now that I think of it, you could also cheat by using the right paper position, and background fade.
Try a quick reference panel on different monitor to compare to composition mode.
Or you could hide the Binder & Inspector & toolbars & headers & footers, to give you a maximally minimalist Scrivener main window. 
If you don’t want to mess up your main window layout, you can use 2x QuickRef panels and hide the Format bar. It’s almost as nice, except you can’t hide the headers & footers. 
I have two monitors, so will sometimes have 4x QuickRef panels displayed, 2x per monitor, with additional panels open, and swap them in and out as needed.
Thanks, Jim.
That is a very creative idea.
I will give it a whirl
Thanks, GoalieDad.
I do not have the luxury of a second (extra) monitor, but like the idea of trying the Quick Reference Panel.
Interesting idea.
Thank you, Vincent_Vincent.
I have done some experimenting with some of the options suggested here, and have concluded that the easiest way for me to do what I want to do (with a single monitor) is to choose the ‘Dark’ Theme (Window - Themes) for the whole Project, and use that.
It seems that Quick Reference Panels (logically, perhaps) take on whatever colour theme one has set in Window - Themes.
So, if I have the Window - Themes set to ‘Default’ (the light ‘white’ colour), when I open the Quick Reference Panels when I am in Composition Mode, the QRP’s open in that light 'Default colour, even though the Composition Mode is dark (white text on a black background).
Yeah, the default theme is an exception in that regard; with all the other built-in themes, Comp Mode color more or less matches the theme color.
You can tweak most of those color settings under File > Options > Appearance > Comp mode/QuickRef/Etc. > Colors.
Best,
Jim
Hi Jim,
Thanks for this.
Actually, the point I have been trying to make is that I had set the Composition Mode colour to dark/black, but keep the Default Theme - that means that I can go from a light coloured regular Theme to a dark coloured Comp Mode when I want to, i.e., you can actually set the Comp Mode colour separately from the Default Theme (in File - Options - Appearance - Composition Mode - Colors).
And I was hoping the Quick Ref. Panels colour could also be set/chosen somewhere.
Perhaps that can be something to add to a future version of Scrivener.
I think Amber V just edited my categories to ‘wish list’ for this - thanks, Amber!
I’m not at my PC do cannot check , but want to confirm, have you tried changing QuickRef panel colors from File > Options > Appearance?
Hi Jim,
Thanks.
Yes, I tried that, but under ‘Quick Reference’ (in File - Options - Appearance - Quick Reference), the only place that colour changes can be applied to is ‘Comments & Footnotes Area Background’, and even when I try applying a different colour to that, it does not work.
Jim,
I do occasionally use the QR solution, but it has its limitations - you can’t scroll through the binder sequentially in one of the windows, and you can’t use the ‘Scroll other editor commands’.
So, I prefer to use your first solution, but I save the ‘bare’ layout with the Layout Manager, so it’s only ever a shortcut away - you don’t need to keep recreating it. (It will revert to the split window, even if the current editor isn’t split.)
Does this work the same way in Windows?
Cheers,
David
It very well might. I haven’t used the Layout Manager in Win Scriv in a very long time. I tried it when v3 was first released; perhaps it was a little buggy or I wasn’t happy about how it worked or something, but for some reason I stopped using it. Thanks for reminding me—I’ll give it another try!
Best,
Jim
